Water

Articles about the liquid gold that makes the western states a place to live.

Las Vegas gets negative press

July 10, 2007

The magazine Fast Company has a list in their July issue of fast cities around the globe. "We scoured the globe in search of placed that best embody economic innovation and opportunity. We found creative-class meccas, R&D hot spots, even cities so fast they're scary. Is your hometown on the list?" says the table of contents page. Unfortunately for the people of Nevada the magazine hits the nail on the head in calling Las Vegas a too fast city and suggests that Vegas is "An environmental pileup in the making. Can the casinos find enough water to fill all those pools?"

Open mouth insert foot...

January 11, 2007

In his second week in office Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons is sticking his foot in it. Today's Review Journal has this funny article. Or it would be funny if it was in Mad Magazine. Alas it is for real and run in a would-be newspaper.

The basic points are that Gibbons thinks the state can pay for it's highways by selling the water rights under the existing highways. We do understand that as a long-time friend of the mining industry Gibbons might think water rights are somehow similar to mineral rights. Even then, however, one would think he would know that the ownership of underground minerals doesn't go with the surface rights. Then again none of this matters.

Nevada Supreme Court decides important water rights case

November 22, 2006

The Nevada Supreme Court published their opinion in Bacher v. State Engineer on Wednesday. The case speaks to several critical areas of Nevada water law and incorporates the "anti-speculation doctrine" in interpretation of Nevada water law.

The court also gave indications of a number of items around beneficial use like the following footnote:

Some projects, including the theme park, had contingencies attached to them. In other words, the projects may be speculative in nature. Although we do not reach whether contingent projects may be considered in evaluating a need for water under NRS 533.370(6) because we conclude that the State Engineer abused his discretion on other grounds, we note that speculative evidence of development projects is not sufficient to survive a substantial evidence inquiry on review.

Rural areas question Las Vegas water grab

November 18, 2005

The Clark County Commission, Las Vegas Valley Water Authority, Clark County Water Reclamation District and the Big Bend Water District are set to vote today on resolutions to support the Southern Nevada Water Authority's plan to sink $2 billion into a system of pipelines purported to meet Las Vegas' water needs.

At hearings yesterday the several local groups and rural residents spoke against the proposition. "There is not enough research to support what they are trying to do," Ann Brauer, chairperson of the Indian Springs Town Board told the hearing.

Earlier this month Las Vegas councilman Gary Reese was the lone "no" vote when the Las Vegas council voted to support the water grab.

None of the political entities in or around Las Vegas has yet explained what they will do after this water grab fails to supply the needs of the valley. At some point perhaps they will begin to consider the necessary limits on growth the the middle of the desert.

Las Vegas developer applies for Sandy Valley water rights

August 12, 2005

A Las Vegas development company, JV Properties, LLC, made application to the state of Nevada for 3620 acre feet of water a year in Sandy Valley. JV Properties, LLC has been involved in developing several properties in Clark County including the Mountain's Edge community in the vicinity of Blue Diamond and Buffalo in Las Vegas.

Read more for the complete application.

APPLICATION TO APPRORIATE WATER NO. 72909 NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, that on the 7th day of June 2005 JV Properties, LLC of Las Vegas, Nevada made application to the State Engineer of Nevada for permission to appropriate 5.0 c.f.s. of the public waters of the State of Nevada. Diversion is to be made from an underground source at a point located within the NW 1/4 NE 1/4 Section 14, T25S, R57E, MDM or at a point from which the SW corner of said Section 14 bears S 30° 53' W, a distance of 5616 feet (approx. 3 1/2 miles SE of Sandy, NV). Water will be used for municipal purposes from January 1st to December 31st of each year. Hugh Ricci, P.E. State Engineer PUB: Aug. 11,18,25 Sept. 1, 2005 LV Review-Journal

WaterWatch

July 18, 2005

The USGS has a great tool called WaterWatch. The site gives real-time information from stream flow sensors around the country. In addition to giving information about how the current flow compares to historical data, the information would be very useful to anyone doing water rescue across the country. This site provides one more example of why SAR incident command posts will need to have a good internet connection sooner rather than later and how incident commanders will need to broaden their thinking in the kinds of information they can have at hand.

PICO HOLDINGS INC May 27, 2005 10-K filing

June 2, 2005

Future looking statements from PICO HOLDING's annual 10-k filing considering its subsidary VIDLER WATER COMPANY, INC.

BACKGROUND

We believe that continuing trends in Nevada and Arizona indicate strong future demand for Vidler's water rights and water storage assets.

Based on census figures, in the three years ended July 1, 2003, the population of Clark County, Nevada, which includes metropolitan Las Vegas, increased 14.6% to almost 1.6 million residents. Around 70,000 people are moving to the area annually. Currently Las Vegas takes most of its water supply from Lake Mead. Due to the continued growth in demand for water and 5 years of drought, the level of Lake Mead has reached 50 year lows. Accordingly, Las Vegas is aggressively seeking to conserve water (e.g., rules have been introduced restricting water use in new homes) and to diversify its sources of water supply. At the same time, the increasing cost of housing in Las Vegas is leading to more rapid growth in outlying areas within commuting distance.

Over time, we believe that these factors will lead to demand for water in parts of southern Nevada where Vidler owns or has an interest in water rights, including southern Lincoln County/northern Clark County and Sandy Valley and Muddy River in Clark County. If growth management initiatives are introduced in Las Vegas, this will lead to even more rapid growth in the areas surrounding metropolitan Las Vegas.

In Arizona, the continued growth of the municipalities surrounding Phoenix in Maricopa County is likely to lead to strong demand for Vidler's water rights in the Harquahala Valley. According to census estimates, the population of Maricopa County increased 9.5% in the three years to July 1, 2003, to almost 3.4 million residents. Many of the municipalities surrounding Phoenix/Scottsdale where the growth is concentrated, do not receive allotments of water from the Colorado River, and are therefore forced to find alternative supplies of water.

Wasted Water

July 23, 2004

An amazing story out of Denver today. It seems for the last decade Denver Water has been running a 4-inch fire hydrant at full flow into the sewer. That's right, while Denver has been suffering through dry year after dry year each week more than 3 million gallons of treated, potable water are going down the drain. The article says that Denver Water hasn't been able to find anybody who could use the water.

I'd suggest they need to replace the folks running Denver Water with some who are slightly better at their jobs. In a market where water is a scarce commodity they can't find anybody who wants the 1.5 billion gallons of water they've sent down the drain. Let's see it only took a few seconds of reading the article to come up with several workable solutions.

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